UP EARLY to get into Glasgow for an appointment at the eye hospital.
Margaret drops me off and goes to get shopping. Once I’m finished at the hospital I walk up to Morrisons at Anniesland for a coffee and a blueberry muffin while I wait for Margaret to pick me up.
A stop in Milngavie for the bank then home.
I spend the afternoon getting some work done in the studio then finish building the ‘greenhouse’. I’m pleasantly surprised at the robustness of the £30 Aldi structure. Once it’s all done I re-pot the butternut squash plants form the house into grow bags and add some frames for them to climb on..then into the ‘greenhouse’.
After dinner I spend some time putting together a news release for Kevin’s (McDermott) next single Sha na Na which drops on 24 May. Time is tight!
MY usual Monday morning Zoom guitar student is today this week.
After our session I do a little work on my pal Kevin’s video for Sha Na Na which is scheduled for release later this month. I’d say the video was finished a week or two ago, but Kevin keeps getting new/more ideas to throw into the mix.
There’s some promo to be done for the special event at the Scottish Music Centre next Tuesday (14 May, 5.30pm) that launches the run of Scottish date for Andres and myself. There’ll be a moderated panel session and discussion about international partnerships and touring followed by short acoustic sets form both of us.
Margaret and I sit down and do some financial and business planning for the next few months – a job/activity that fell by the wayside during covid and we’ve been bumbling our way along ever since.
I take some time out to start building a temporary greenhouse-like thing from Aldi – hoping to move my butternut squash and some other stuff out of the house over the next few days. I started early this year – and germinated everything using hydroponics so it’ll be interesting to see how they fare.
I get the kids out for their first SUP experience 🙂
UP early to get sourdough in the over…and get some work done before Catriona and the kids get here. They’re coming first thing to take a trip over to the island.
We got Freya a floatation vest for her birthday so that she (and Aaron too) could come with me and try sitting on the paddleboard.
Fiona and I paddle to the island and head for Port Bawn at the far end – the others are getting the boat over and will walk to the other end of the island.
We have a great hour or two with the kids enjoying taking turns to sit on my paddleboard for a wee paddles round in the relative safety of the bay. Both do really well 🙂
Back home I have a shower and lunch before an online guitar session with one of my Zoom students. My late afternoon student’s mum messaged to say she couldn’t;t make it, so I get busy with setting up tonight’s livestream with Andres. The tech is a little temperamental, but we do a test at 6pm and make sure everything’s working.
All goes good then back home for dinner and chill for a wee while before bed…
I decide to put some of the mugs that didn’t turn out too good in my online store as giveaways. If there’s any left see them here…
AFTER breakfast I start experimenting with the tech in the studio – I’m not sure the best way to stream Andres and I onto my Facebook page tomorrow (Monday) evening.
Zoom would be best as I have a pro account that’ll let me stream to Facebook but there seems to be a hiccup with the link. I try linking via OBS but there’s an awful lot of complicated audio routing if I’m gonna get both of us coming through.
Then I find that Zoom worked after all!
Once I have a plan I start making some video reels to promote the livestream and get them round the socials. I also edit up a vertical video to promote the live shows in general.
I have five ‘reject’ logo mugs I made that I can’t sell. Instead of chucking them out I put them into my online store as ‘free-plus-postage’.
I finally get out for a wee wander up the lochside…then back home in time for dinner 🙂
UP EARLY to get sorted and on our way to Doune to help with preparations for Freya’s birthday party. She’s six tomorrow (Sunday) but her party’s today 🙂
We get there soon after 11am and have a couple of hours to help get stuff ready before we head to to the party venue in Dunblane – a Christian Fellowship centre that operates more like a community centre…it’s a great, well-equipped place with separate spaces for the kids to sit and eat and a huge play area with a bouncy castle, ball pools and other stuff.
The kids arrive and play for half an hour before Poppy Bubbles entertains them with her bubble-tastic show. After party food and stuff they go back to play until the end of the party and we head back to Catriona and Will’s.
Matty comes back to our to stay and we sit and chat for a while before ebed…
WE GOT most of the packing done last night, so there’s not too much of a scramble to get on the road to Kirriemuir after a session with my regular Friday morning guitar student.
We roll up at the festival marquee just after 2pm and get loaded in. There’s a band sound checking so we hang in our backstage portacabin which is well stocked with snacks, food, water, soft drinks…and a cooler full of zero alcohol Peroni. Great attention to detail!
Soundcheck goes great then we chill for a while before going to the merch area to set up.
I have a grand time playing and there’s a lot of familiar faces out in the crowd…and at the merch cabin afterwards. A lot of the folks from Berlin’s GotM (Guardians of the Memory) who saw me last timeI played Bonfest – seven years ago – and had me over in Berlin a year ago to play at their anniversary concert…and a guy I haven’t seen for well over 40 years came to say hello.
We have a fantastic evening and manage to get home before midnight. Result!
MARGARET’S ff to Edinburgh early to meet (sister) Les and get her hair done.
I hit the studio and create some artwork for the ‘below the line’ release of Key to the Highway then set it up for 7 June. I’ll make it available on Bandcamp before then…and get it to to the mailing list and Wildcats first.
Next job it too make up a setlist for tomorrow’s (Friday) show at Bonfest, Kirriemuir. Then rehearse a little.
Will’s of to a paperweight collector’s convention in the ‘States soon nd has asked me to make up some discount vouchers so I take the laptop into the sunshine (?!?!?) and sit outside making up some artwork.
When Margaret gets back she sorts out merch for tomorrow and I make up some mugs then go for a wee walk up the lochside.
I HAVE a Zoom session with one of my fortnightly guitar students then get straight onto filming some stuff for Key to the Highway.
I seem to have become obsessed with doing something with this, despite it being a traditional number!
After a break for a Zoom chat with my pal Kevin about the video we’ve been working on and the release schedule for his next single, I finish filming my own stuff. Green screen and my mad hair don’t get on too good, so I’m trying a plain white background.
It works pretty good and I start messing with ideas on how to add some animated doodles. I also decide to do some artwork and put it out as a ‘below the radar’ single. Can’t do any harm.
Late afternoon we head into Glasgow for an event at the Scottish Music Centre. Good to catch up with folks and plug the upcoming panel session/show that Andres and I are doing therein a couple weeks.
Costco is still open when we head for home so we we stop and get some shopping..then a chilled evening…
THE usual Monday routine – an early alarm to get the sourdough in the oven. While it bakes, then cools, I drink coffee and deal with emails and my socials.
I have a couple of personalised West Highland Way Gifts’ WHW trekking flasks to make up for an order – someone from Canada walking the WHW next month wants to collect them when passing through the village.
I get the flasks engraving then hit the studio for a session with one of my Zoom guitar students.
There’s some work to do in the studio before my regular afternoon guitar student arrives…then I drive into Balloch to pick up some shopping.
Back home I start setting up filming for an idea to go with my weekend recording of Key to the Highway. I manage a take before my weekly WIldcats’ livestream on Facebook.
Tidying up after the livestream I realise that my video ‘take’ earlier didn’t record…ah well, there’s always tomorrow!
The tricone gets rolled out for a wee recording session…
I NEED to get up at a reasonable time to get a pork butt on the smoker for tonight’s dinner. Catriona and the kids are coming for the night.
Once it’s all up and running I get in touch with mobile masseuse Ruth – aka ‘the mistress of pain’. She’s going to be at Betty’s to see Betty and Fiona and if she has time, I’d like to see if she can do anything to help my left shoulder/arm.
She has time to add a session for me, so I arrange to go along to Betty’s late afternoon.
I made some mugs for both West Highland Way Gifts and my own merch store so I get them added to the respective online shops then post some pics and links round my socials. I haven’t done Dave Arcari mugs for about ten years, so we’ll see if folks like ’em.
Before I know it, it’s time to head along to Betty’s. Ruth’s just finishing up with Fiona then it’s my turn. It’s painful in a ‘stop it I like it’ kinda way and it’s the first massage I’ve had where it feels like the masseuse is doing something meaningful. I see why Fiona nicknamed her ‘the mistress of pain’ tho’!
While I;m on the massage table in the other room Margaret rocks up with the kids. Catriona’s having asleep at ours.
Once I’ve been battered we sit nd have a drink then wander home, stopping to feed the ducks on the way.
Margaret feeds the kids and I hit the studio to set up a stripped back recording session for Key to the Highway. I posted a clip of the song from my wildcats’ livestream and folks seem to like it, so curious how a ‘proper’ recording might work out.
By the time I’ve got something down the kids are heading to bed and the pork is nearly ready 🙂
